LA by-way-of South Florida indie pop artist myah is a tenacious and talented force exploring her emotions through deep, impassioned pieces – all of which come to the fore on her boldly dramatic debut album, ‘i don’t know what i’m feeling.’

Stream: ‘i don’t know what i’m feeling’ – myah

For years, myah (aka Mariah Morgenstern) has been the creative force shaping the visual worlds of music’s biggest names.

Her production credits span an impressive list of artists, from The Marías and 24kGoldn’s chart-topping “Mood,” to Kehlani’s “Little Story,” Steve Aoki’s “Ultimate” and “Invítame a Un Café,” Tinashe’s “X,” and Oliver Tree’s “Cowboys Don’t Cry.” In 2025, her talents behind the camera earned her a Telly Award for the self-directed music video, “the lobby.”

But myah isn’t just a visual storyteller, and she’s now more than ever turning her focus to the music itself. Originally hailing from South Florida and now based in Los Angeles, her sound fuses alternative rock, pop, and pop-punk vivacity with the emotional edge of Midwest emo guitars. With her blend of biting angst, melodic warmth, and cinematic vision, myah is stepping out from behind the camera and onto center stage.

Independently released on August 29^th, her debut album i don’t know what i’m feeling explores relatable themes of love, loss, wonder, and longing, inviting listeners not just to hear her songs, but to see themselves inside them. myah draws from her own profound, intimate experiences, but leaves the door open for her audience, making her music undeniably special. By avoiding pronouns when she can, myah makes it easy for anyone to live within the stories she creates.

Atwood Magazine spoke with the up-and-coming artist about her burgeoning signature sound, musical influences, her new album, and a whole lot more: Read our interview below and stream i don’t know what i’m feeling, out now!

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:: stream/purchase i don’t know… here ::

:: connect with myah here ::

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A CONVERSATION WITH MYAH

myah: I’m the youngest of five, and when I was a kid, my brother Devin gave me his iPod. He told me that if I started listening now, I’d have the best taste in music by the time I got to college. I think every little girl wants to be cool like their older brothers, so I agreed. That iPod was my first real introduction to music, and it had everything a 7-year-old probably wouldn’t have discovered on their own: Modest Mouse, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The National, Blink-182, Sigur Rós, Sum 41, The Killers, Netherfriends, The Postal Service, Talking Heads, Wolf Parade…the list goes on.

As I got older, I was super into Midwest emo and goth scenes. I listened to a lot of metal and screamo, but I also did musical theatre and loved R&B and synthpop. Rather than commit to making music that had one sonic voice, I wanted to see how I could pay homage to all the different production choices I loved that made me feel something.

These various genre eras from my life ultimately became this melting pot of textures that bled into my music style, and I think that’s why people have had trouble placing what artists I sound like, which is a good thing to me. I’ll let listeners discover the specific influences on their own, but if you’ve ever wondered why I talk in some of my songs, that’s the showtunes.

myah: If I were to pick a band that has shaped the way I perform live, that would definitely be Twenty One Pilots. But when it comes to songwriting and production, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Foxing, and Modest Mouse have influenced me the most.

I think their lyrics sing like poetry. It’s clear they write about things they’ve actually been through or thought about, versus something more manufactured or written by someone else. That means a lot to me as a listener. Their production choices are everything I admire about alternative music; it’s visceral and atmospheric, lo-fi and experimental, you just can’t escape the way it makes you feel.

I think Karen O is one of the greatest vocalists of our time. She’s a powerhouse with an incredible tone. “Maps” and “Skeletons” are two perfect songs. Lyrically, they’re repetitive, but they don’t feel lazy. She takes repetition, makes it hypnotic, and really lures you in. My track “always want you” was inspired by that form.

Modest Mouse’s lyrics are so introspective and self-aware, while having this sort of dark humor behind them. The way Isaac Brock writes about his anxiety surrounding living a complacent life – or a life without purpose – is something I relate to a lot. People think Modest Mouse is just “Float On,” but you can’t listen to that song without listening to “The World At Large” right before it. Good News for People Who Love Bad News is what inspired me to make a concept album with interludes and songs that roll into each other. I think he did it best. “The Horn Intro” is genius. The influence that band has had on me is monumental.

Foxing’s lyrics have a level of vulnerability and yearning that is hard to ignore. “Rory,” “The Medic,” “Bloodhound,” and “Slapstick” are all phenomenal songs both story and production-wise. I think Foxing is a great example of how you can still be rock and have these epic, heavy, headbanger songs, while also finding moments to be quiet and soft. I understand my own human experience better because these artists invite you to experience theirs, and that’s because they authentically lay it all out on the table. I try to write music just as meaningful.

myah: Growing up in South Florida is a unique experience, and I think the media gives us a bad reputation. Where I’m from, you can drive an hour to Miami and see South Beach, or drive a little over an hour to the Everglades and get a lesson on swamps and alligators. If you really want an adventure, you can keep driving south until you hit the Keys, which truly feel like you’re being transported to a different era.

The landscape here is so vivid that I try to make music in a similar way; where you can close your eyes and it’s easy to picture, almost like a scene from a movie. I was a kid when Hurricane Katrina hit. I was in middle school when my mom came home from work and found a baby alligator in our tub that my brother Hunter had caught. I went to college next to Universal and Disney World.

Florida has an incredible music scene, especially if you like pop-punk music. There would be no Ocean Avenue without Jacksonville, Florida, and that song exists because when you grow up here, you understand how important Florida is compared to other places. The people, the beaches, the memories – there’s so much life here that ranges from simple to just bizarre, and I love to take it all in.

Florida can feel like it’s frozen in time, and I think growing up in such a diverse place, with so many niche life experiences, allowed me to create music that feels lived in. My home is rich in history, where the sun shines bright most of the year, and has the best afternoon storms during the rainy season.

All of that contrast shaped the way I write. I think that’s why my music can sound dramatic but dreamy and familiar, because I view my hometown in that way. It’s very romantic to me.

myah: Like a flavor from your childhood that doesn’t exist anymore. It’s nostalgic, but sweet, and you didn’t realize you missed it until it hit you all at once. You know that scene in Ratatouille, when Anton Ego takes a bite and suddenly, he’s transported back to his childhood? That’s what it tastes like.

myah: I struggle with expressing my emotions verbally, which I’ve learned is tied to something called alexithymia. Pretty much my whole life I’ve had all of these feelings and thoughts in my head, but I didn’t know how to say them out loud, and every time I tried, nothing came out. The best visual metaphor to describe this is when Ariel loses the ability to speak in The Little Mermaid. That’s what it felt like.

When I started writing music, it was like all of a sudden, I was able to communicate what I was feeling. The lights turned on. One song led to another, and before I knew it, I had this body of work that didn’t have a name. But when you zoomed out, it was a collection of songs that expressed so many emotions that maybe there wasn’t a single one to land on.

I immediately thought, “God. People are going to think I’m insane. This is a lot.” I think that’s why the title track, “i don’t know what i’m feeling,” is so self-aware. As someone who views life with a romantic lens, I couldn’t say this album was about love or heartbreak. It’s more about learning and discovering for the first time how to articulate yourself, and in doing so, realizing you don’t know what you’re feeling, because you’re feeling everything. I thought love was simple, until I started to really unpack just how complex it actually is.

myah: “dissolve” is the first track on the record because it sets the tone for what’s to come. It captures that initial emotional collapse once a relationship has ended, and you sort of feel like you’re living on a loop in slow motion. Towards the end of writing this album, I was going through a very bad breakup, and it felt like a punch to the throat.

How could I have been so stupid? So wrong? How could I be so vulnerable, so careful, and in the end, I still got burned? It felt like the final straw of all the relationships I had experienced. During my relationship with this person, I was so convinced I got it right, that when it ended the way that it did, I felt like I couldn’t pretend to be strong anymore, and that’s when I wrote dissolve.

It’s a self-aware crash-out song, and sonically it builds the same way a crash-out would. The song is about going from being secure to anxious because your partner is avoidant and drifting away. “Uh oh, I’ve done it again,” is the logical side of my brain talking, realizing that I had made the same mistake again, but because I’m a romantic, I tricked myself into believing I could be enough to change someone else’s psychology.

That’s the problem with being a romantic. You think love is enough, when it’s not. Just because you love someone doesn’t mean they love you back or understand you, and when that became clear, I crashed out hard, so I put those feelings into the track.

myah: In a broader sense, yes, “glitter” is about leaving behind a small piece of yourself for someone, and I think glitter can be replaced with any personal memento, depending on the listener. For me, glitter is a literal calling card. I’ve worn glitter eye makeup nearly every day for the last five years or so, and it’s become a signature of mine.

There was this person I was dating who sent me a text about finding glitter in their apartment, and it made them think of me. That was the first time I got a text like that and then it became a pattern. I’d get messages about the glitter left behind. “Your glitter’s on my cheek.” “It’s in my hair.” I thought, “Huh, I’m kinda like a glitter vigilante. I should write a song about this.”

I don’t think there’s anything more intimate than sleeping next to someone, which is why the hook says, “Is there glitter on your sheets? Where we like to sleep?” Rather than making it overt, I kept it more innocent. In my opinion, there’s nothing like the simplicity of falling asleep on the couch with someone you care about, and I wanted to convey that emotion.

At its core, the song is about wanting to be romanticized back – to be the person someone can’t stop thinking about, rather than always being the person who’s doing the thinking. The repetition plays into the yearning. There’s something beautiful in the idea that a small piece of glitter can activate a memory, and at the end of the day, memories are all we have.

myah: As I mentioned before, I was going through a bad breakup towards the end of writing this album, and it was the first time in my adult life I had been completely blindsided by a relationship ending. I didn’t know it was coming, and it felt like a bomb went off. When I told my friends or my peers how it happened, every response was the same: “You dodged a bullet!” But it got exhausting.

I didn’t want to be some strong girl boss. I didn’t feel empowered or better off. I felt betrayed. I wanted to cry. I understood that I had dodged a bullet, but emotionally, I was devastated. Again, like my opener “dissolve,” I struggled with the fact that my emotions couldn’t catch up with the logical side of my brain. I knew so vividly that anyone who could hurt me the way they did was not someone I should want. And yet, because of my own issues with abandonment and self-worth, my heart broke in their absence. I found myself in a desperate loop of trying to understand.

Eventually, I asked myself, “Why does dodging a bullet hurt so much?” And I came to the conclusion that just because you dodged one doesn’t mean you weren’t grazed. It doesn’t mean it was clean, that there was no impact. And what’s more heroic than taking a bullet for someone? Would you do it, if it meant they’d stay?

In my grief, these were the questions I asked. The lyric, “Hit me!” was an homage to one of my favorite movies, The Dark Knight, when the Joker dares Batman to run him over. He knowingly risks it all, and he invites the destruction head-on. I think we often do that in toxic relationships; we compromise ourselves in exchange for pain, if it means the person will stay.

That moment of desperation is what inspired the crowd chant in the outro. It’s not the healthiest response, but I think it’s a very human one. We all want to be enough, to matter, to be chosen, and when you aren’t fully healed post-breakup, you feel like you’d rather fall on the sword than be alone.

Having since healed from that relationship, I think dodging bullets is exactly what a harsh, no-contact breakup feels like. I knew it had to close the album, because it leaves you with a question: “Did she survive it? What will the next chapter look like?” And those answers are currently being written.

myah: That’s a great question. I have a music video for dissolve dropping, and I’ll keep making music videos since I consider my visuals a huge part of my artistry. My future plans are to hopefully open for a more established artist so I can play these songs live. I’d really like to tour. Even though the album is out, there’s still a lot of work to be done to reach more people, so I’ll be focusing on that for a while.

myah: I don’t have any artists or songs that I wouldn’t want people to know I listen to – I’m a pretty open book if you let me be one. But if you want some good, funky music to listen to, I recommend Architecture in Helsinki. Specifically, their song “Do the Whirlwind.”

I love that song, and it has amazing production elements. The breakdown at around 2:45 – tell me you don’t immediately want to start dancing the moment you hear that. They have a lot of weird indie pop songs that are wonderful. You can tell they didn’t care about conforming to anything; they just made what they liked. The textures and details in their production are some of the best I’ve heard. 10/10 recommend.

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:: stream/purchase i don’t know… here ::

:: connect with myah here ::

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